State lacked coal mine inspections during 2005

March 14, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Â? A state official acknowledges that required state inspections of Indiana's seven underground coal mines were not conducted for at least a year before the deaths of 12 workers in a West Virginia mine.

State law requires quarterly inspections of Indiana's underground mines, but state labor Commissioner Miguel Rivera said he called off those reviews because they duplicated work by federal inspectors and he wanted to devote resources from the state Bureau of Mines on other priorities.

"I made that call," Rivera told Indianapolis television station WTHR for a story Monday. "Our focus is on training miners and mine rescue."

Rivera acknowledged the lack of inspections after WTHR requested copies of state mine inspection for the past two years.

Rivera, who was appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels last year to head the Labor Department, sent a letter to the agency's sole mine inspector just days after the West Virginia deaths in January, instructing him to "commence inspection" of the Indiana mines at least four times a year.

John Alaria, who as deputy commissioner of the state's Bureau of Mines was the agency's sole employee, protested in a Jan. 9 letter to Rivera that he had been told for months to defer inspections to the federal agency and that one person could not handle the ordered work load.

"It takes a complete quarter to inspect one mine of any size in its entirety, let alone seven in one quarter," Alaria wrote.

Indiana is the nation's eighth-largest coal producer, with about 1,500 workers in the underground mines concentrated around Vincennes in the southwestern part of the state. Officials expect about 3,000 more miners to be hired as five new mines open up during the next few years.

Rivera pointed out that Indiana's mines have had no deaths since 2004 and that the state's focus has been on improving rescue operations and establishing a better training program for new miners in partnership with Vincennes University.

David Whitcomb, assistant manager for the federal mine agency district that includes Indiana, declined to discuss with WTHR the lack of inspections by the state. But he said an inspection of the smallest Indiana mine takes about three weeks, while the larger mines Â? one of which has about 40 miles of tunnels Â? can take up to three months to complete.

Rivera said it was "pure coincidence" that he ordered the resumption of state inspections so soon after the West Virginia deaths, saying he had been planning the move for some time.

"I don't see a need to duplicate those sorts of efforts," he said of the state and federal inspection programs. "However, the state Legislature has decided that's what we will do, so that's what we're doing."

Alaria inspected all seven mines in seven weeks after Rivera's order, spending no more than four days at any one mine, WTHR reported. The state mining bureau, which state law says should have a director and a chief mine inspector, has no workers after Alaria resigned last week to take a job at a mining company.

Rivera said he already has made an offer to a potential replacement for Alaria and hoped to have the job filled within 10 days.

Rivera said agency records showed no state mining inspections had been conducted for about eight years. But WTHR reported that former inspectors had said such reviews were being done under previous administrations.